The Mezzanine Gallery Presents Shefon Taylor’s “The Fragment Holds More Than the Whole”

Through evocative collage and archival abstraction, Taylor explores memory, identity, and the poetics of fragmentation in her May 2025 exhibition

 

Wilmington, Del. (May 1, 2025)The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery is pleased to present The Fragment Holds More Than the Whole, a solo exhibition of collage works by Delaware artist Shefon N. Taylor. The show will be on view from May 2 to May 30, 2025, with an opening reception on Friday, May 2, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Visitors are invited to meet the artist and experience firsthand her thoughtful exploration of memory, beauty, and belonging through archival abstraction.

In The Fragment Holds More Than the Whole, Taylor uses found vintage magazine and book imagery, tracing paper, and thread to reframe our understanding of archives, memory, and identity. Rather than seeking to reconstruct or restore wholeness, Taylor’s work engages the fragment as a dynamic site of presence and possibility. Each piece becomes an act of negotiation—inviting viewers to confront the spaces between what is seen and unseen, remembered and forgotten, complete and incomplete.

Drawing from Toni Morrison’s concept of “rememory”—the idea of recollection as a reassembly of body, family, and historical memory—Taylor’s collages challenge conventional narratives shaped by public archives. Her layered approach, which she terms “archival abstraction,” resists restoration and instead privileges rupture, opacity, and the poetics of absence. Her work invites audiences to reckon with beauty standards, notions of Black femininity, and the myth of historical resolution.

“This body of work interrogates the visual archive’s limitations and its entanglement with Black history and beauty,” Taylor explains. “By working with fragments—partial, severed, obscured—I aim to honor the spaces where meaning survives outside of traditional notions of wholeness. Fragmentation isn’t failure; it’s a different kind of remembering.”

The exhibition’s signature image, A fragment of “She touched my shoulder like she knew me”, exemplifies Taylor’s process: a tender, layered encounter with memory where vintage imagery and delicate threadwork suspend certainty and invite reflection. Through her compositions, Taylor suggests that what remains—what resists closure—can hold deeper truths than what appears complete.

Taylor’s work has been featured in national publications such as Essence, Grazia, and Harper’s Bazaar, and her dedication to reimagining the archive has earned her residencies and fellowships at institutions like The Delaware Contemporary and The Winterthur Museum. For more information about Shefon N. Taylor and her artistic practice, visit www.shefontaylor.com.

About the Artist

Shefon N. Taylor is an artist called by the secret realms of the archive. Through collage and material exploration, she investigates how absence shapes interiority, belonging, and personal memory. Her work has been recognized and published nationally, and she continues to develop her practice through ongoing research fellowships and exhibitions. Taylor holds a strong commitment to exploring the poetics of fragmentation as a tool for cultural and personal inquiry.

About the Mezzanine Gallery

The Mezzanine Gallery, located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building (820 N. French Street, Wilmington, DE), is open to the public Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The gallery highlights the work of Delaware’s Individual Artist Fellows, showcasing a diverse range of artistic talent throughout the year. For more information, visit https://arts.delaware.gov/mezzanine-gallery.

Images in the banner: A fragment of “she touched my shoulder like she knew me” (2025), Found vintage magazine and book imagery, tracing paper and thread on Bristol board, 11”x14”.  He told me to wait, so I never moved” (2025), Found vintage magazine and book imagery, tracing paper and thread on Bristol board, 11”x14”.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

About the Delaware Division of the Arts
The Delaware Division of the Arts is an agency of the State of Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Funding for Division programs is provided by annual appropriations from the Delaware General Assembly and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.


Delaware Division of the Arts presents “Between Light & Shadow” by Hannah Whiddon – Opens August 4

Wilmington, Del. (July 25, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents Hannah Whiddon’s exhibition, “Between Light & Shadow,” running August 4-25, 2023.  Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, August 4 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Drawing inspiration from the beauty inherent in everyday life and the human form, Whiddon’s paintings transcend specific places and times, evoking feelings and memories rather than representing them. Her pieces celebrate human sensuality, employing compelling subjects, a vibrant palette, and bold, painterly textures.

Hannah Whiddon’s artistic journey has included participation in several exhibitions in the mid-Atlantic region. Her talent was showcased in the esteemed Sarah Silberman Art Gallery in 2016, and she further distinguished herself with a solo exhibition at the Baltimore Art Gallery in 2020, featuring a captivating collaboration with Charmed Kitchen.

In 2022, her evocative work earned her a place at the Hunt & Lane Gallery in Rehoboth Beach, and she continued to make an impact on the local art scene with a group pop-up show organized by the Village Improvement Association. Whiddon was awarded a Delaware Division of the Arts Artist Opportunity Grant in 2022 and was selected for the first-ever Artist Career Development Pilot Program cohort in 2023.

“Between Light & Shadow” showcases the artist’s profound understanding of the interplay between light and darkness. Each painting is a testament to her skillful brushwork, texture, and composition, masterfully highlighting the allure of her subjects while invoking contemplation and introspection. The exhibition presents a variety of works, some featuring dramatic scenes where shadows elongate and intertwine, imbuing a sense of mystery and intrigue. Other pieces gracefully capture the delicate balance between light and shadow, artfully representing the ephemeral nature of the world around us.

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

Image: Hannah Whiddon, “Kick” (2023), acrylic, 18”x24”.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.


Delaware Division of the Arts presents “Patterns for Saturn” by Aaron Terry – Opens June 2

Wilmington, Del. (May 25, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Aaron Terry’s exhibition, “Patterns for Saturn,” running June 2-July 28, 2023.  Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, June 2 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Aaron Terry, a Wilmington resident and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Design at The University of Delaware, created site-specific work for the Mezzanine Gallery located in the Carvel State Office Building. Terry made a series of screen printed fabric wall hangings that provide a contrast to the hard surfaces and neutral palette of the building.

Aaron Terry’s work dances between sculptural, sonic, and printed materials that present visual allegories of personal politics embedded in the color, flash, and cadence of today’s rapid-fire media parade. Sourcing from personal drawings, recordings, sound bites and news media, the work resurrects new conversations with old ghosts, and questions the potential for a better future. As visual pop and politics synthesize in continuous flux to create an extended detournement; Terry utilizes repetitive sonic and visual elements to reinvigorate progressive ideas nested in music and cultural references that have devolved and diminished through false familiarity over time. His work grapples with finding “truth” in a sea of today’s excessive media.

Patterns for Saturn considers the importance of dreamlife: time spent outside of lived reality. This includes a loose sense of meditation: time spent shaking off contemplation and frustration with today’s crushing sense of political and cultural hooliganism. Abstract patterns and a soundtrack blanket the walls of the gallery, to remove the viewer from the space: the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington, DE. This is both a respite from and a comment on the architecture and atmosphere of state and governmental buildings in general. The visual patterns and sounds produced in the space are meant to provide a space for escape, contemplation, and meditation.

Terry’s work has been seen in ten solo exhibitions and over 30 group shows, as well as a half-dozen murals and installations. He is a member of Philadelphia’s Vox Populi artist collective. In 2022, Terry received a Delaware Division of the Arts Fellowship in Visual Arts: Works on Paper.

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington. Please note that the Gallery will be closed on June 19 and July 4 in observance of holidays. 

Image: Aaron Terry. “Salad Daze”, Screen Print on Denim. 44”x96”. 2022.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.


The Mezzanine Gallery to Exhibit Roger Matsumoto’s Printing with Palladium from February 3-23

On view from February 3-23, 2023

 

Wilmington, Del. (January 25, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Roger Matsumoto’s exhibition, “Printing with Palladium”, running February 3-24, 2023. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, February 3 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Roger Matsumoto has been involved with photography since he learned the basics during his junior high school days. The photographer for his school newspaper, Matsumoto also did astrophotography using an 8-inch telescope that he made. But “I did not consider what I was doing to be any form of art.” It was only later – on a climbing trip to Yosemite during college – that he “purchased a small booklet of Ansel Adams photographs that made me see what photography was capable of.”

He then began to study seriously, taking a photography class at the University of Utah. After exploring silver printing and some “alternative” processes during the 1970s (including Cibachrome color work), Matsumoto discovered printing with palladium, now his primary process. Since he began exhibiting in 1982, his work has been seen in over 200 shows, including at the Fleischer Art Memorial (Philadelphia), Foundry Art Center (St. Louis, MO), Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington), and the London (England) Camera Club, where his print won first prize. Matsumoto also has prints in the collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Utah Museum of Fine Art, and Philadelphia Museum of Art (three prints).

 

Though Ansel Adams’ photographs were the pivotal inspiration for his work and his artistic practice, Matsumoto was also influenced by the work of Karl Blossfeldt and Brett Weston. His current process “extends the purely photographic image with brushed lines or areas” applied at the same time as the palladium coating, making each print a “distinct realization of the negative” – a monoprint. Matsumoto is also exploring a new series called “Stereo Pair” that mimics the stereo cards popular at the end of the 19th century.

The Newark resident was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was in the Army, and (with his mother and sister) Matsumoto lived in Tokyo for three years as a child in a U.S. military housing base. The family eventually relocated to the Pacific Northwest, and Matsumoto lived in the Seattle region until after graduate school. He then moved to Salt Lake City. He came to Delaware from Salt Lake City and has lived here since 1988, “the longest I’ve been in one place.”

Matsumoto’s palladium images are almost exclusively of botanical subjects. He can make negatives at any time during the year, but “I print in palladium only in the winter when the humidity is low.” This means that often months elapse between creating the negative and printing it. The pandemic, “while not actually a complete re-set of my past practice,” allowed him to try out new films. But there’s been a recent spike in the cost of palladium (and all art supplies), and Matsumoto is also challenged by the “changes made in the materials I use.” However, he’s looking forward to exhibiting again. “These prints need to be seen in person, not only on a monitor or cell phone screen.”

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

Image: “16-13a”. Palladium Monoprint. 12″x20″. 2016.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.